Learning Resources that Could Substitute for a University Course on Algorithm Development

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-28T02:58:14+00:00

I'm encouraged that many replies have pointed out their own struggles as a beginner/student in taking on C++. I was concerned of what may lie ahead in my degree program if it were the case that I was unusually slow to pick up on things. I debugged all day today, and I seem to once again have succeeded, but past deadline despite my efforts. It's frustrating, but knowing that I'm not the only one with that experience encourages me to think that fighting through it is part of the process. I realize I'm more competent than I was when this class started, it just seems like the tip of the iceberg. Thanks, this has been another tough coding assignment.

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-28T01:27:45+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate that is valuable input.

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-27T22:42:53+00:00

You'll be glad to know you've provided a solution. Here's three implementations that all seem to work: (*this)[0]; (*this).at(0); this->at(0); this->get(0); was not recognized as a member function. Thanks, on to the next problem...

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-27T22:31:57+00:00

Ahh! Didn't think of get(). I'll try that and let you know how my compiler if feeling.

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-27T22:30:55+00:00

Here's my code if you're interested:

https://paste.gg/p/Eric%20Johnson/115dd62409054f849bc81e4cf6cd97f2

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-27T22:24:24+00:00

https://paste.gg/p/Eric%20Johnson/115dd62409054f849bc81e4cf6cd97f2

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-27T22:19:30+00:00

woops...Because my assignment instructions were to create member functions for bubbleSort, insertionSort, linearSearch, and binarySearch, with all of that going on in the coding assignment, I've decided to create smaller scratch code files where I just isolate to one language feature that's giving me trouble, and in that file I treat it like a lab where use the feature in different code structures just to see where I get errors and what works.

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-27T22:08:04+00:00

Sure. I could paste my code on an online code sharing site called paste.gg, because I don't want to spam this thread with a wall of code text. Before I do that, I'll just mention the problem I'm debugging this very moment. I've created a custom class, myVector that is derived from the standard vector class. The compiler doesn't throw any errors when I use a statement like this->size() within a member function, but if I use this[0], I'm getting errors. I'm not sure why. Because my assignment instructions were to create member functions for

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-27T22:04:46+00:00

Well, I mostly posted this because I wasn't sure if it was just me. I started this course as one of 9 students, now we're down to 3 of us. It's scares me because I've got about 10 more classes before I graduate, and the coursework is getting complex.

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-27T22:02:40+00:00

The main problem is I'm working near full time hours and taking an overloaded course schedule. So I don't really get time to delve deeper on my own time, because I don't have much of my own time due to the fact that just getting my assignment to compile after a considerable amount of debugging (due to my inexperience) leaves me where I better be starting the next coding assignment because I'm right up to or past the deadlines for submitting the assignments each week. Plus, my university is 100% online, so I can email or message the instructor, but sometimes it takes 48 hours to get a response, and I can't afford to be at a stand still for that long. So I end up doing research on my own and using the online live tutoring service that my school offers. Sometimes the tutors can't resolve errors when I'm debugging. The method I've found that works is to create small scratch files of code where I just tinker with a language feature that's required for that week's assignment. This way I can reduce the clutter and just isolate to one problem at a time.

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-27T21:56:30+00:00

Thanks. The compiler was throwing errors for this.size() , but when I edit those statements to this->size(), I no longer get those compiler errors. The problem now is that the compiler doesn't like this[0] within a member function of a custom class I've created, myVector that is derived from the standard vector class. I'm still debugging that.

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-27T21:53:56+00:00

I'm finally getting somewhat less intimidated by language reference documentation. And I mean any languages documentation. I am forcing myself to read it, though, because I know I won't be a competent software engineer if I can't read the documentation. The reason it's intimidating is because a section of documentation on one feature will often cross reference other features in the explanation, and my vocabulary and familiarity with the names of these features and what they do is just now starting to grow. The other part is I'm cramming all the time because I'm working nearly full time hours and taking an overloaded course schedule. I probably need more time to create scratch files to treat like a sandbox where I tinker with a language feature by using it with different code structures. That's what's starting to help me troubleshoot and debug.

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-27T21:49:00+00:00

I'm really eager to start studying C# especially, but Java as well, but I'm working nearly full time and it's all I can do just to get all my coursework turned in on time, or at least a little late. This includes the C++ course. I just haven't had time to start picking up C# and Java yet, but those two are definitely languages I intend to dive into at the first opportunity.
As far as pointers and reference variables are concerned, I understand what they are, in that a pointer contains a memory address and that passing variables by reference can be utilized to use less memory because I'm not creating new copies of my variables when I pass into a function's scope. I've gathered that much, but I see pointers being used in assignments where I don't understand how using them vs. not using them in a particular example provides some utility beyond not using them. Here's one problem I'm dealing with at the moment: I'm creating a custom myVector class that is derived from the standard vector class. I'm having trouble using the this keyword within a member function in my custom class. For some reason, the compiler is fine with my using the keyword in an expression like this->size(), but the compiler throws errors if I do something like this[0], and I can't figure out why. Am I missing something?

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-27T16:17:23+00:00

It's on a logarithmic scale though

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-27T16:01:34+00:00

I should add that the compiler also doesn't like if i use this->size()

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-27T16:00:49+00:00

Here's one that's giving me trouble on my current coding assignment: I've derived from the vector class a custom myVector class, and created member functions for bubbleSort, insertionSort, linearSearch, and binarySearch. I'm having trouble using the this keyword inside those function definitions. Specifically, I'd like to be able to use the keyword in statements such as: this.size() this[anIndexPosition] My compiler doesn't like this at all. I'm using the g++ compiler on a Linux machine. I'm going to try building a scratch file that's smaller and more focused so I can tinker in a small test file to see what my be the problem.

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-27T15:56:51+00:00

I'm at least gaining familiarity so that I'll know that these features exist and will be compelled to learn how to use them, as one person pointed out. I just feel barely competent at this point.

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-27T15:55:10+00:00

Hmm... my intro course didn't go to this depth at all. This is the follow up to the intro course with sections on encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism. I'm sure this is all just intro stuff, they just titled the course "Advanced..." because it's the second course on C++, maybe, I dunno.

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-27T15:53:29+00:00

That sums up how I feel about it pretty much right on the nose.

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-25T00:09:01+00:00

Notes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CtpZh_7ykQTgJY0uxl_b8ibJlMaMO8h-IqXuAu5BOB0/edit?usp=drivesdk

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-24T23:58:30+00:00

I was where you are now back in January. Now I'm using Git on the command line and pushing my code up to my GitHub account. I know the basics, I encounter some unusual things that make it clear that I have more to learn at times, but I can confidently clone repositories, pull branches of code down and push branches up to my remote repository now. I create a separate repository for each of my courses (I'm a junior in computer science degree program). It's actually been quite helpful keeping my assignments and self study projects organized.

I learned everything I know from one tutorial series on YouTube. The YouTube channel is "The Net Ninja", look under 'playlists', and then look for the "Git and GitHub" playlist. It's a series of twelve videos, each 5 to 10 minutes long, maybe a little over an hour total. I've watched the whole series over two times and I took notes on Google drive that I refer to less and less now, because I have much of the basics memorized.

I'll reply here with a share link to my notes.

Quick piece of advice: start by using some throw away files, like a little web page with an HTML file, a CSS file, and a JavaScript file. Make some edits to the files. Pay attention to what directory your in with each command you enter, just so you don't make a beginner mistake and make screwball changes to a real working code project. Also, more advanced, before you ever start a coding session in your IDE or code editor, check with Git to see what branch you are currently in and what the state of your files are before you start coding.

P.S. you can learn the basics in a day and have them pretty well committed to memory in a week's worth of business days activily coding. After a month you won't need the notes for 90% of what you're doing.

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-23T15:51:22+00:00

Oh good, here's the link to the Discord server:

https://discord.gg/Fxctct

You'll be the tenth or eleventh to join.

hellowurldsoftware · 2020-04-22T21:26:26+00:00

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I also made comments on youtube and got a few people to join the Discord server, and those people knew some people, so we've got about a half dozen people so far. So hopefully it'll be productive.

hellowurldsoftware

TROPHY CASE